Re: NFL - Football 2007

Wisgal...this is for you! Even though I'm in Seattle, this is the t-shirt I'll be wearing this Sunday and on Super Bowl Sunday

How I'd love to be in Wisconsin right now.

As with everyone else, I've been a Brett Favre fan for a number of years...since 1996 to be exact when I saw him play in Seattle in the Kingdome. What I love about him is his "big kid" quality and his love for the game of football. In last week's game I thought he showed his "big kid" side when he started throwing snowballs, and then it was like...oh yeah...we're playing a football game here.

I wish the Packers and Favre the best of luck this Sunday and hope to see them in the Super Bowl!

Gooooo Packers!!!

Thank Jette - nice shirt I've been a fan all my life living in Wisconsin. I have fond memories as a young girl, wearing my cheerleader outfit on gamedays. My parents were involved in a sports league and we had the opportunity to be part of the off season/meet the packers. They still come to our area every year for a basketball game against our police department, but when I was young it was all about Bart Starr & number 66. I was trilled to meet them and Ray planted a kiss on my cheek that I told my parents I will never wash my face again We took our sons to this type of game several years ago (before Brett was our starter) and low and behold Brett was there. He was so young and full of energy. I recall him taking the basketball in the palm of his hand and throwing it the lenght of the fieldhouse. I was thankful no children were in the path of the throw.

I received the following in a email and I thought I would pass it on to all of you.

It's easy to hate the New York Yankees if you're a Boston Red Sox fan, and vice versa. The same goes for the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, Michigan and Ohio State and those originators of the shotgun formation, the Hatfields and McCoys.

But who hates the Green Bay Packers?

Steeped in tradition and often viewed through a prism of sepia-tone nostalgia, the Packers have succeeded against all odds in a tiny and remote market, in a 50-year-old (albeit renovated) stadium with aluminum bench seats, in an era of unfettered free agency and corporate greed.

OK, if you're a Seahawks fan, you're not feeling all warm and fuzzy about Brett Favre and Al Harris right about now. 'We want the ball and we're going to score!' might be old news, but the sting lingers.

Really, though, do you hate the Packers?

Not if you know anything about the history of the National Football League. Not if you've seen those grainy images of the 1967 'Ice Bowl' and Bart Starr's fateful quarterback sneak on the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field. Not if you admire the principles on which Vince Lombardi built a dynasty.

Not if you pull for the underdog.

In Wisconsin, there is no other option. You are born into Packerdom here. Your great-grandfather cheered for Curly Lambeau and Don Hutson, your grandpa for Paul Hornung and Willie Wood, your dad for James Lofton and Lynn Dickey. Every kid on your block owns a No. 4 jersey.

What makes the Packers special? Start with the fact that there are 112,015 owners, the vast majority of whom hold one share of stock. Formed in the NFL's primordial mist in 1919, the Packers became a non-profit entity four years later and remain the only publicly owned team among the major professional sports.

The most recent stock sale, in 1998, netted 106,000 new 'owners' who paid $200 per share (and sent $24 million straight to the team's bottom line) for certificates that are basically worthless. The stock never pays dividends or appreciates in value. But the emotional investment is priceless. When general manager Ted Thompson signs a free agent, the fans can thump their chests and say, 'I helped bring that guy to Green Bay.' And it's true.

Of course, Bob Harlan, who has run the Packers for 19 years, first as president and CEO and more recently as chairman of the board, has a stake in the team. He, too, owns exactly one share of stock.

'I paid $25 for my share when I became president,' said Harlan, who is retiring after the postseason. 'When fans call me, they start out by saying, 'Bob, I'm a fan and a shareholder.' They always point out that they're shareholders. I say, 'Well, I am, too, so let's talk.' '

Did we mention that Harlan answers his own telephone? There is no administrative assistant to run interference, no automated maze to negotiate. You've got a beef with the injured cornerback or the price of tickets, you go straight to the top dog.

The fact that the Packers can even exist in a city of 100,000 is a minor miracle, due in equal parts to fan loyalty throughout the state and revenue sharing in the NFL. Los Angeles can't support a team but this little frozen outpost can? It's one of the mysteries of the universe.

It helps that not much ever happens in Green Bay, other than what occurs at 1265 Lombardi Ave. Lambeau Field -- notice, no naming rights -- is the city's corporate and social epicenter, its source of civic pride, its very heart and soul.

The nearest NCAA Division I football team is 2 1/2 hours away at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Milwaukee is 115 miles to the south, so the Packers are the only game in town.

Their reach extends north into Michigan's Upper Peninsula, south into Chicago Bears turf and west clear to the Dakotas (the team had a 40-year head start on the Minnesota Vikings). And that doesn't count the fans who have relocated or the ones Harlan likens to the 'Notre Dame subway alumni.'

'People call me and say, 'I'm a lifelong Packers fan and someday I'd love to see Lambeau Field,' ' Harlan said. 'They've never even been here.'

On game days, the far-flung Cheeseheads converge on Green Bay and fill the Lambeau parking lot hours before kickoff. First-time visitors are blown away by the passion, creativity and dedication of the tailgaters. There's nothing quite like the smell of 10,000 bratwursts sizzling on 1,000 grills and the sight of footballs spiraling through 10-degree air.

The Packers-Seahawks game will mark the 268th consecutive sellout at Lambeau, including playoffs. That's every single game since 1960. The waiting list for season tickets is at 76,800. With an average of 70 fans per year giving up their seats, the guy at the end of the list will have to wait 1,000 years, give or take a few decades, for his name to come up.

Season-ticket holders live in all 50 states and several foreign countries, including Japan. Domo arrigato.

The obsession with the team is such that the 10 p.m. TV newscasts in Milwaukee and Green Bay are dominated by Packers developments. The long snapper has an ingrown toenail? That leads the sports report. The price of beer is going up at Lambeau? That's the top story.

Brett Favre retires? We don't even want to think about that one.

The Packers have won 12 championships, more than any other NFL franchise, and three Super Bowl titles. The team has sent 21 players to the Hall of Fame. Green Bay city streets are named after former players and coaches, including Mike Holmgren.

But it's not about all that.

It's about a unique relationship between a professional sports franchise and its fans.

It's about people feeling they're a part of something special, something unique, something good.

Re: NFL - Football 2007

Originally Posted by wisgalb;2760681;

The fact that the Packers can even exist in a city of 100,000 is a minor miracle, due in equal parts to fan loyalty throughout the state and revenue sharing in the NFL. Los Angeles can't support a team but this little frozen outpost can? It's one of the mysteries of the universe.

Re: NFL - Football 2007

as to "who doesn't love the Packers" I'd say "Bears fans" at least some of them. Who were the Packers playing against for the past, what, 80-some years - da Bears. I grew up in Wisconsin 9 miles from Platteville where the Bears used to have their summer practices, so our small town was over-run with Bears fans who'd loudly and proudly proclaim their team's superiority. Of course this was in the 1980s when the Bears actually won Superbowl XX and Walter Peyton was very awesome about signing autographs and taking pictures with the fans. They didn't call him sweetness for nothing. Jim McMahon, not so much. William "the Refrigerator" Perry driving a Spree up a hill - hillarious.

In the 14 years I've lived in Minnesota I've encountered lots of Vikings fans, and for a cold weather town, they are largely warm weather fans. Lots of purple pride when the team is doing well - mass apathy and dissertion when they inevitably screw up. Packers fans in my experience are much more loyal (insanely so). We all survived the Coach Starr era (Bart was a great player, terrible head coach), year after year of "The Pack is Back" talk through the late 70s and the 80s, etc. In the 1990s Holmgren and Favre really brought winning and contention back to the team, but fan support had never waivered.

I hope the Pack pulls through tomorrow night in the cold. I'll be watching with interest.

Re: NFL - Football 2007

Originally Posted by wisgalb;2760681;

But who hates the Green Bay Packers?

I always assumed Viking fans, and people from Minnesota in general, hated the Packers, but that may just be because I've been deeply involved in the Badger-Gopher rivalry, and I figured that the WI-MN rivalry carried into pro football as well.

I do agree about the Bears though. I have two friends who live together, a Packers fan and a Bears fan. Whenever the teams play each other, they don't speak to each other until 24 hours after the game is decided.

Re: NFL - Football 2007

Peyton Manning & Tom Brady, after living full lives, died and went to heaven.

God was showing them around. They came to two modest little houses, one with a faded Colts flag in the window and one with a faded Patriots flag in the window.

'These houses are yours for eternity, Peyton and Tom,' said God. 'These are very special; not everyone gets a house up here.'

Peyton and Tom felt very special, indeed, and walked up to their homes.

On their way up the porch, they noticed another house just around the corner.

It was a 3-story mansion with a powder blue and gold sidewalk, a 50 foot tall flagpole with an enormous Chargers flag, and in every window, a lightning bolt.

Peyton and Tom looked at God and said, 'God, we're not trying to be ungrateful, but we have a question. We were all-pro quarterbacks, and we won many Super Bowls, and we even went to the Hall of Fame.'